What I Leave Behind

Gloves, timetables, the correct change are impatient, soon done with me.
Keys like handshakes depart. The right questions are umbrellas which linger,
losing me in booths, on busses. I took a risk--now corridors
encourage me to drop a little extra--buttons, a hat, my mauve bouclé muffler.

Talk to me like a clerk. I can describe what I've lost.
You're quiet as a globe--listen
I'm giving away my secrets.

Rachel Norton's poems have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Northwest Review, Poetry Now, and other publications. Barbarian Press has published a book of her poems and poems by Paula Gardiner entitled Believed to Cause Night.